


Oh, the wax is melting

by brightclam



Series: Fire spirit Mick [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e07 Marooned, M/M, definitely need to read the first part to understand this, later installations will make more sense, might be hard to read if you don't remember the episode, more of an exploration of the mind link than anything else, this one is pretty choppy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 07:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10381941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightclam/pseuds/brightclam
Summary: Len may have betrayed Mick when he took him from Star City, but at least he didn't bring time pirates onto the Wave Rider. Their breakup is even messier with the supernatural involved, and could have deadly consequences for the team.





	1. the breakup

**Author's Note:**

> hha ha ha because I have no control over my life this is a series now
> 
> I'm still reeling from this episode so this might not make a lot of sense. Also, it's three in the morning. Oh well. Hope you enjoy!

\-----------

Len, despite the space-cold pouring into the room, is burning. Whatever is happening to Mick must be bad; their link is boiling with rage and pain.

 

He tries to focus on Sara, on their oncoming death. Anything is better than the bonfire in his head. 

 

But Mick keeps slipping into his thoughts, bleeding through the link. Sara talks about her death, it's interesting, but also deeply personal. He should give her something in return—

 

“I almost died when I first met Mick.”

 

It appears the link is bleeding into his speech as well as his brain. But speaking about one of his most personal memories is better than thinking about the firestorm that is Mick.

 

Sara listens to the story with interest, but she isn't getting what he's telling her. How Mick has been in a different body then, a lanky, tall man with dark hair. How he'd burnt Len’s tormentors alive with his bare hands.

 

How the devil’s eyes had fixed on him, how it had been showing off, courting him.

 

“Without me, Mick is dangerous.” 

 

Truer words he’s never spoken. The distance between him and Mick aches. He’s painfully aware that something important is happening to Mick and he’s not there.

 

Ray fixes the bulkhead, somehow. Sara is drunk on their survival, smiling at him as she pulls him out of the room. All he can see is Mick on his knees. It’s a familiar, pleasant image; Len leans forwards, reaching out to it.

 

Then Mick’s falling backwards, body shaking with blows. It takes them silently, like it always does. Pain blossoms in Len’s cheekbone, blood blooms on Mick’s face. 

 

His partner collapses to the floor. It's prone form blurs, becoming two. Ray lies on the ground, still like Mick. But Ray jerks back to life, and Mick rises too.

 

Finally, the bond snaps back to normal and Len can think again. 

 

“You two need a moment?”

 

He doesn’t hear Kendra’s reply, mind suddenly jerked back into the bond. An engine roars, a door shuts. 

 

Then, he’s back in the world again. Ray, Kendra and Sara are walking into the hallway. Dazedly, Len follows them.

 

Sara says that Mick has escaped. Mick is coming back to him. Mick is okay.

 

The hatch begins to open. The bond twists, thrashes. Foreboding rises in Len’s stomach.

 

Mick steps out of the shadows. It's nose, it's bottom lip, are bloody. Len wants to wipe the red away until Mick is clean again.

 

When Mick speaks, it echoes around the hallway.

 

“Come on out, boys.”

 

Its voice is wrecked, gravely in a different way from the confident growl it usually adopts. It sounds like a voice that’s been screaming. 

 

Surrounded by people with guns, Mick meets Len’s eyes. If he didn’t already know their relationship was struggling, Mick’s newfound enjoyment of replacing him with mindless thugs would be a good warning sign.

 

“I’m getting us home. You in?”

 

It’s tempting. It’s  _ so  _ tempting. He misses Lisa. He misses pulling simple heists with Mick. He misses fighting Flash. He misses being Captain Cold.

 

But something pulls him back. Something is keeping him pinned, keeping him on the Waverider. 

 

“Time to choose a side.”

 

He shoots one of the thugs next to Mick. Betrayal, surprise, anger, flash through the bond. Len braces for the link to be cut off, braces for Mick to rip itself out of Len and leave him empty.

 

It doesn’t. The link stays in place, thrumming with anger and fear and disappointment. 

 

A near miss by one of the thugs reminded Len that he’s in the middle of a firefight. He dives for cover, finding it in a nearby doorway. 

 

Kendra and Ray stay in the middle of the hallway, absorbing blows and taking thugs out by hand. Len stays crouched in the doorway, taking out any of the thugs that have guns, or that manage to sneak into one of his team’s blindspots.

 

Ray is taking out the last of the thugs when the link flares again. This time, it’s savage, pure joy. Mick is fighting against a quick, sleek form—Sara—its heat gun spewing flame across the room, raising the temperature.

 

As Sara flinches back from the flame, barely avoid being burned, the link burns hotter and hotter. Len presses his head against the cool bulkhead and struggles to breath.

 

_ Its become too unstable, I can’t hold it back. Its powers are working their way loose. If it gets completely free, it will destroy the ship and everyone on it. _

 

He feels like his head is splitting, but he knows he has to do something now. He pushes himself up and runs for the engine room.

 

Mick has Sara cornered when Len bursts through the door. 

 

“Micck!”

 

He shouts, half a too-late warning, half a plea for forgiveness. The ice blast hits Mick squarely, sending him to the floor.

 

He's often wondered if Mick knew he had the cold gun before it chose him. If it didn't, then it must be regretting it’s mate-choice now; it bonded with the only human on the planet with a weapon that can hurt it.

 

His team comes up behind him, weapons pointed at Mick’s prone form. Mick looks up with eyes only for Len, snarls through its bloody lip:

 

“Whatcha gonna do, Snart?”

 

The link throbs in his head, making it hard to think. Anticipation, cold amusement, and a deep, boiling rage echoes around his head.

  
_ Hell hath no fury like a fire spirit twice betrayed. _


	2. the aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, now they have a very pissed off fire spirit stuck in their brig. What to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mick uses it/its/itself pronouns btw

\---------

The team seems unduly concerned about Mick. They suggest dropping it back off in 2016 or keeping him in the brig, neither of which will work.

 

“I said I'll take care of it!”

 

He's starting to lose his cool, snapping at the team. But he’s got a demon in his head, alternating between whispering all the terrible things it'll do to him and pleading for Len to come back to it.

 

Mick is still unstable, no longer half man half spirit. It's in full spirit mode now, inhuman emotions too strong for Len’s mind.

 

The team thinks he’s going to kill Mick. He isn't going to, he couldn't even if he wanted to, but he doesn't want to.

 

He doesn't want to admit to himself that he cares too deeply about Mick. But he's not about to attempt murdering it either, no matter how necessary it might be.

 

He drags Mick out to a secluded forest clearing and kicks him awake. It rolls to it’s feet and growls:

 

“I told you you wouldn't touch me again.”

 

Then it’s aflame, fire sparking in its palms, eager to burn Len.

 

“I didn't want to do this, Mick.”

 

“Well, neither of us are leaving here alive.”

 

“You're right, Mick.”

 

He fires the cold gun next to Mick. It flinches away from the ice, flames sputtering. Before it looks back at him, Len smashes the butt of the gun into it’s head. It collapses, unconscious again.

 

He stands over it’s prone body, already missing his partner.

 

“I'll come back for you, Mick.”

 

As he walks back to the ship, he hacks at the link, crushing it down as small as possible and burying it in the darkest corner of his mind.

 

The burn of Mick’s mind goes muted, then disappears. For the first time in years, Len is alone in his head.

**Author's Note:**

> some of the dialogue is weird bc 1) i'm trying to incorporate mick and leonard's drawls which is kinda hard to do and 2) i'm writing the dialogue from memory so it's probably not entirely correct


End file.
